Table 3 presents estimates of the effects of experiencing economic disruptions during the first COVID-19 lockdown on open defecation at the household and sub-household levels. At the household level, reported open defecation declines by 11 percentage points, a 22% decline from the baseline mean among these households (Table 3, column (1)). Among different groups of household members, reported open defecation declines from 6 percentage points (a 13% decline from the baseline mean) for female children to 13 percentage points (a 26% decline from the baseline mean) for male children, although the results for female children are not statistically significant (Table 3, columns (2)–(5)). As a supplementary analysis, we examine if economic COVID-19 disruptions increase latrine use at the household and intrahousehold levels (see Supplementary Material, Table A2). While we find increased latrine use among households and among the four intrahousehold member categories for households that experienced economic disruptions during the first COVID-19 lockdown, all the estimates are insignificant or marginally significant. Taken together, these results on sanitation and hygiene behaviors suggest that households that experienced economic COVID-19 disruptions may have been able to shift their intensive margins of safe sanitation and hygiene behavior, but not their extensive margins. That is, households that experienced these disruptions could increase the frequency of safe sanitation and hygiene behaviors but did not have the resources to invest in additional products or technologies.

Table 3

Open defecation

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)
HouseholdMale adultsFemale adultsMale childrenFemale children
Economic COVID-19 disruption × Post −0.11** −0.08* −0.09* −0.13** −0.06 
 (0.04) (0.04) (0.05) (0.06) (0.08) 
Observations 1,794 1,794 1,794 1,070 992 
Household fixed effects 
R2 0.83 0.81 0.81 0.86 0.87 
Baseline mean (disrupted households) 0.49 0.47 0.46 0.50 0.48 
(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)
HouseholdMale adultsFemale adultsMale childrenFemale children
Economic COVID-19 disruption × Post −0.11** −0.08* −0.09* −0.13** −0.06 
 (0.04) (0.04) (0.05) (0.06) (0.08) 
Observations 1,794 1,794 1,794 1,070 992 
Household fixed effects 
R2 0.83 0.81 0.81 0.86 0.87 
Baseline mean (disrupted households) 0.49 0.47 0.46 0.50 0.48 

Notes: Results are reported as coefficient (standard error). Economic COVID-19 disruption refers to households that experienced at least two economic consequences of the COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020 (out of return migrants, lost wages, deferred purchases, and loan taking). Post refers to the post-lockdown wave of data collection (December 2020–January 2021). Economic COVID-19 disruption × Post is the interaction of these two variables. Columns (1)–(5) include household head secondary education, family size, television ownership, and receipt of Swachh Bharat subsidies as household controls, a post wave indicator, and household fixed effects. All standard errors are clustered at the village level. The baseline mean is calculated among households that experienced substantial economic disruptions during the first COVID-19 lockdown. *p < 0.1; **p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01.

Source: All data come from the baseline (October 2019) and endline (December 2020–January 2021) household surveys.

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